Malaysian government had recently decided to somehow ‘forced’ us poor citizens in using their newly released RON95 petrol, last 2 weeks I fed my Charmant with it since my RON97 was running real low. Soon after I had my Charmant’s 4AGE pumped with RON95 petrol, I heard this weird ringing noise from my engine, I thought I had some loosen screws or something in there, but after consulting my friend Johnny, it was found that my engine was having the OMGWTFBBQ knocking issue!
My entire family including my wife went on a short vacation last weekend, leaving me alone in the house, so I thought I’d ask Johnny over to have a closer inspection on my knocking 4AGE.
AE86 in my house yo!
At first Johnny thought that my 4AGE may not be entirely stock and the timing has been slightly tuned, hence the knocking issue caused from the new RON95 petrol, but before he decided to downtune my 4AGE timing, he had decided to check on my fuel pump….
We disconnected some hoses and checked on my fuel return, which was failing, and then we further checked on our fuel filter and discovered that it somehow jammed the fuel from flowing through! At that time we knew there can only be 2 causes, either its the fuel filter or it’s the fuel pump, we’ve decided it’s fair that we had the filter replaced first, and off we went to a nearby spare part shop and get ourselves a new one, plus some new hoses.
My old fuel filter
New hose
After we had the new fuel filter and hose installed, the fuel return is still not working perfectly as it is now dripping, just like an old man having urinating issues, LOL!
Johnny then dived into my rear boot and checked on the fuel pump, he suspected it could be my ‘kampung’ style wiring that was done by the previous mechanic, that there was not enough electric power being fed to the fuel pump, OR, it could be my fuel pump needed some servicing and cleaning, OR, I just need to get it replaced…. the last 2 options would require us to dismantling the fuel tank which is NOT an easy job so we decided to go for the 1st option, just to give it a try.
We bought some thick electrical wires and re-routed to my battery, after all was done, we started the engine, and surprisingly, the old man urinating problem is somehow CURED! Well, not entirely, as it took’em 10-20 seconds before the fuel return started moving, and 1 thing is for sure, the fuel pump WILL need to be taken out sooner or later, but hey, I enjoyed the entire process and I’ve learnt a lot, HUGE thanks to Johnny for the help and guidance, all these had spent us an entire day!
I then drove my car out to check if the knocking issues were still there, surprisingly, it’s gone! Summary, my 4AGE’s knocking issues were obviously not caused by RON95, but in fact it was my faulty fuel pump which was not feeding enough fuel to my engine that causes the knocking, but now its being fixed… well… temporarily… I’m pretty happy with what me and Johnny get to achieve today.
Till next time then…
p/s: Gosh, it’s already September, how time flies! ^^
Sibu Dorifuto! 